Fate’s Door is fantasy blended with the ancient world of our own Mediterranean Sea. The novel follows the adventures of Nerine, a sea nymph who lives off the coast of an island located between what will become the boot of Italy and the northern shore of Africa. Wishing to knit Fate’s Door into the fabric of history, I researched such items as horse sandals and vertical looms.

The fruits of my research appeared as blog posts here (as well as in details mentioned in my novel). If you’d like to learn more about Nerine’s world, the links below will take you to some intriguing lore from ancient Europe.

Knossos, Center of Minoan Culture
Horse Sandals and the 4th Century BC
Measurement in Ancient Greece
Garb of the Sea People
Merchant Ships of the Ancient Mediterranean
Lapadoússa, an Isle of Pelagie
Ground Looms
Calendar of the Ancient Mediterranean
Warships of the Ancient Mediterranean
Names in Ancient Greece
Vertical Looms
Update on Fate’s Door (Eilidh and the Olympians)
The Keltoi of Európi
Crossing the Danube
Lugh and the Lunasad
The Ancient Goths
Nerine’s Youngest Sister
The Baltic Sea
The Norns of Fate’s Door
The Nine Muses of Antiquity
Cottage of the Norns
Brocade and Drawlooms
Hera’s Handmaidens
Nerine’s Room
Mother Holle
Fate’s Door: The Beginning

Chapters Cut From Fate’s Door
Eilidh and the Olympians (Update on Fate’s Door)
Agnippe and Mount Helicon (Nerine’s Youngest Sister)
Agnippe and the Muses (The Nine Muses of Antiquity)
Eilidh’s Farewell (Hera’s Handmaidens)